Thirteen Snacks for Qingming Festival in Beijing

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Jiangsi Paicha (Shredded ginger crisp thin fritter twist)

Shredded Ginger crisp thin fritter twist is also known as crisp thin fritter twist with ginger soup, crisp thin fritter twist with ginger crisp, crisp thin fritter twist with honey. It is a typical Beijing snack. Though it is a famous snack, it is not hard to make it at home. All you need to do is steep ginger into water and then roll a flour ball using ginger soup. Later, you roll the flour ball into smooth, evenly distributed flakes and then put starch on it. After piling all the flakes up, you need to cut them into cakes 2 cm wide and 5 cm long. Put two pieces together and cut three times in the middle. You scatter them and fry them using mild oil and fire. Next, put honey onto fried cakes and put sugar into ginger soup before collecting all the shredded ginger. When the water boils, you put maltose into it and continue cook it using small fire. Then you put fried cake into the ginger soup before getting the snack dry.

Mati Shaobing (Horseshoe-shaped Baked Roll)

An old saying goes: “East or west, come to eat horseshoe baked roll at an early date”. A rectangular brick hanging furnace is the tool for making horseshoe baked roll. Coal fire below the tool helps heat the food. A hole can be seen from above the furnace, where you can see hoof-shaped patterns. When baking the roll, the baker needs to spray some sesame onto round rolls which are with half leaven dough and stuck on the chopping board. After that, the baker should apply oil and sugar water, and stick the rolls onto the top of the furnace. That’s when the roll starts taking shape. After being baked ripe, the rolls are empty inside while charred outside. You can put a fried break stick into a split roll and the combination tastes delicious, sweet and crisp.

Tang Erduo (Fried sugar cake)

Also known as honeyed doughnut, the ear-shaped snack is a common Beijing snack. Immediately after taking the shape of an ear, Tang Erduo needs to be soaked in tepid maltose water before it gets cold. It is a snack that is often served in spring, autumn and winter. Honey is likely to fall because of it is done in summer. Brownish yellow honeyed doughnut tastes smooth, soft, sweet and delightful.

Lvdagun (Fried Chop Rice Cake)

Lvdagun Lvdagun is nothing ordinary. It includes many raw materials like millet flour, soybean flour, red bean paste, white sugar, sesame oil, osmanthus, green and red sliced orange peel and melon seeds. So we have a diverse range of ingredients, making the snack highly nutritional. The making of Lvdagun goes through three processes—pastry blanking, filling and shaping. A finished Lvdagun is covered with bean flours and looks golden yellow. It smells nice and its filling is sweet. It tastes soft, special and is suitable for both the young and the old.

Zhimajiang Shaobing (Baked Roll with Sesame Paste)

Shaobing (baked roll) is a popular snack in Beijing. Restaurants run by the Hui people used to provide the snack with its outer layer at times covered with sesame, while the middle of the snack is invariably pasted with sesame paste regardless of its outer layer. A typical Hui snack usually includes a full range of fermented drink made from ground beans with pickles, fried ring, tofu jelly with baked roll with sesame paste, hard tofu with baked wheaten cake, millet congee with pie and crisp fritter with tongue cake. Baked roll with sesame paste is golden yellow, charred outside while tender inside. It produces a strong aroma. A cut of the snack reveals evenly layers inside. The most typical one is usually composed of 15 or 16 layers.

Yingmianbobo (Sweet hard flour cake)

Sweet hard flour cake used to be a common cooked wheaten food of Beijing snack. Because of habit change and improvement in living standards, fewer hit the street for buying snacks as staple. That’s why Sweet hard flour cake is no longer pedaled on the street. Hard pastry is tough, chewy and sweet. In the past, makers of hard pastry often pedaled the snack on the street. Their yo-ho could spread far and wide at night.

Tanghuoshao (Sweetened Baked Wheaten Cake)

Sweetened Baked Wheaten Cake is a common breakfast for Beijingers that enjoys a history of more than 300 years. Dashunzhai, a maker of the snack, is the most famous of all. The cake is fragrant, sweet and rich in taste. It is soft, tender but not sticky, so it’s more suitable for the elderly. Ganglushaobing (round rolls baked in a jar as furnace) was a kind of snack in Hebei province, and later it was spread to Beijing and became a Beijing snack. People use a jar as furnace baking the snack. The baker only needs to stick rolls onto the wall of the jar, hence its name.

Aiwowo (Glutinous rice ball)

"White flour into a steamer, and it is with assorted fillings. It looks like a sweet dumpling without being cooked. It is called Aiwowo". Aiwowo is a traditional Beijing snack. Its outing is made of steamed sticky rice and filling of fried peach kernel, watermelon seeds, sesame seeds and white sugar. The snack is edible after it is done. During the Spring Festival, the snack will hit the shelf of many snack stores in Beijing. And it won’t be removed from the shelf until the end of summer. It is better served in spring and autumn, but nowadays it can be bought at any season.

Jiaoquan

Jiaoquan is a kind of Beijing snack favored by the young and old. When eating baked rolls and Douzhi, a fermented drink made from ground beans, Beijingers often have jiaoquan to go with them. The snack won’t go sour even if it is stored for 10 days to 15 days. It would be as crisp as it was just made. It is one of people’s favorite foods over the past thousands of years. Fried ring used to be bought at porridge shops, Douzhi shops and Snack shops. According to Beijing Dialect Dictionary, “It looks like a ring and is especially crisp”.

Sanzi Twist

Sanzi Twist is a fine snack of Beijing Muslim snack that is welcomed by the general public. Also known as Sanzi or ring cake, it is a kind of fried dough twist. It is said that ring cake came into being in the Warring States Period. After the Qin and Han Dynasties, Sanzi twist became a must for Hanshi Festival. Its making process is very complex. First, you need to put vitriol, alkali, brown sugar and sugar osmanthus into warm water. Second, put flour into the solution and stir it. Then you roll it into a long strip and let it stay there for a while before cutting it into pieces with each weighing 40 grams.

Luosizhuaner (Snail Spinning)

Main ingredients include standard flour, sesame paste, oil, salt, Sichuan pepper, a handful of aniseed and sodium carbonate. Makers firstly use standard flour, leaven dough and alkali to roll into a long strip before slicing them into smaller things weighing 75 gram each. They need to roll the small things into thin flakes but shouldn’t press it too hard. After slicing, they can put two pieces together with the inside down. Later, they should pinch the rear side and hold two sides. One side is as a center that should be held by hand and the other side revolved by another hand. After revolving, the snack can be put into the oven.

Wandouhuang (Pea Pudding)

Pea cake pudding is a traditional snack of Beijing. According to Beijing’s customs, people usually eat it on the third day of Lunar Marchthird month in Chinese lunar calendar, people should eat it. So in every spring, pea cakes pudding begin to be sold on the market until the end of spring. Pea cakesPea Pudding in Beijing consist of Imperial pea pudding and folk pea pudding. Peas grown in Zhangjiakou are of the best quality. As a traditional snack, pea puddings, together with French Bean Rolls were introduced into the Qing Imperial Court.

Tangjuanguo (Sweet Rolled Cake)

Tangjuanguo is a renowned snack of Beijing delicacies as it is well received by Chinese and foreign food lovers, particularly women. Its main ingredients include Chinese yam, Chinese dates, supplemented by green plum, peach kernel and melon seeds.